Paul Christopher Doroshenko

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Paul Christopher Doroshenko, KC entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement admitting professional misconduct for failing to act with courtesy, civility, and good faith toward his former articling student M.O. by advancing unfounded allegations about her loyalty, truthfulness, and competence in a Notice of Civil Claim. Following termination, courts found M.O. was wrongfully dismissed and had been subjected to unfair, bad faith, bullying conduct, awarding her substantial damages (increased on appeal to $118,934 general, $50,000 aggravated, and $25,000 punitive). No express finding of dishonesty was made in the discipline decision. The Chair of the Discipline Committee approved a $15,000 fine plus completion of EDI courses.

Duties found breached:

• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Prior professional conduct record including a 2021 consent agreement (two-month suspension for trust accounting breaches) and a 2021 conduct review
• M.O. was the victim of unfair, bullying, bad faith conduct causing substantial and prolonged emotional distress (per trial findings)
• Disproportionate response to discovery of the Blog

Mitigating factors:

• Retained and relied on advice of experienced trial counsel
• Held an honest belief that privileged and sensitive materials were improperly retained by M.O.
• Certain exculpatory evidence was not presented at trial on counsel's advice (e.g., date/manner of service)
• Admitted his conduct was unduly insensitive and ill-advised and expressed he would handle matters differently